[pfsb] happy halloween!

[acrookedpath]

It's that time of year again.

The inn is bustling. All manner of strange outfits have been donned (some more willingly than others). Lanterns flicker ominously in the corners, pumpkins stand sentry at either end of the bar, and every order comes complete with a handful of wrapped candies.

And -- if you're Wei Wuxian -- Madam Bar has also gifted you with an enormous array of tiny cakes, each one with a little candle stuck in its center. His second birthday at the inn has arrived, and he could not be more pleased.

(He's also wearing a red T-shirt that reads, simply, I'M THE CHAOS. Just like last year, he has set his mild confusion aside in favor of delight at the bounty Madam Bar has given him.)

Comments

[acrookedpath]

Wei Wuxian's blush deepens. He lifts Lan Zhan's hand to drop a kiss on his knuckles.

"Yes," he murmurs. "It is."

[lotus_sister]

"I'm so happy," Jiang Yanli tells them, and sets her tea cup aside. She has to; her grasp is slipping, she's noticed.

"Be happy too, A-Xian, okay?"

[acrookedpath]

The way she says that -- the way she sets her tea down --

Wei Wuxian's smile slips, all his attention on Jiang Yanli.

With quiet apprehension: "Shijie?"

[lightamidchaos]

She raises a hand to touch Wei Ying’s cheek, and Lan Wangji sees with shock that it is more pale than before, as though all color is fading from her.

His glance goes to the window behind her, where the first, faintest hints of dawn are beginning to paint the horizon, and he realizes what is happening.

[acrookedpath]

"Shijie," he repeats, and his voice cracks, helpless, as he covers her hand with his own. Already it feels so much colder than it did a moment ago.

He had begun to think he would be all right, when the time came for her to depart. This extra night with her was such a balm to his grief; a chance to drink his fill of the lost moments he thought he would never have again. But how could he ever truly drink his fill? How foolish, to think he would ever be all right with his shijie leaving him again.

Tears well fast and stinging in his eyes as he watches the color bleed away from his sister's face.

[lotus_sister]

She brings her other hand up as well, and tips her head to rest her forehead against his. “Shh,” she soothes. “Don’t cry, A-Xian. I’m not leaving forever! I’ll come back.”

“You will,” Lan Wangji declares. “We will find a way for you to do so and remain as long as you wish.”

[acrookedpath]

"I know," he croaks, wobbly. "We will see you again. I know."

But --

He wraps his arms around her and clings as tight as he dares, as if he could prevent the sunrise from pulling her away.

[lotus_sister]

She hugs him back as tightly as she can, for as long as she can.

“Dear Xianxian. Shijie loves you,” she whispers. “Don’t ever forget.”

[acrookedpath]

"I won't forget." Muffled. "I love you so much."

Don't go, he wants to cry. Don't leave again.

But it is not up to him. No tricks, wicked or not, could ever dominate the will of the inn: kind enough to give him this gift, uncompromising enough to give it for only one night.

"I'm so glad you could visit."

[lotus_sister]

“I’ll come back soon,” she promises, and hopes it’s true. Her smile stays warm and loving even as she begins to fade like a dream on waking.

[acrookedpath]

He can feel the give to her form, no longer as solid -- "No," he breathes before he can stop himself, and hauls in a shuddering breath to stop any more repetitions from escaping. No, no, no.

Don't go.

He makes himself let go. Makes himself pull back enough to look his shijie in the eye -- harder, now, as she becomes translucent, then transparent, in the growing rays of dawn. "I will see you soon," he manages. Tears streak down his face. "Just like this. Where we can sit and share tea, and hug one another, and..."

He swallows hard.

"I love you."

I'm sorry.

[lotus_sister]

“I love you too,” she whispers - or it sounds like a whisper, at any rate. She kisses his forehead, light as a butterfly’s touch.

“A-Xian,” she says, fond and loving, and is gone.

[acrookedpath]

A faint, reddish light touches the far wall. Sunrise.

He hurts, everywhere, in his eyes and his throat and his head, and everything around him has blurred to smears of color. Yellow streaks of talismans. Broad, formless stripes of tables and teacups.

The white blotch of Lan Zhan next to him.

A sob crawls up his throat, and he claps his hand to his mouth to smother it, unsuccessfully.

[lightamidchaos]

He moves without thinking, wrapping both arms around Wei Ying and pulling him in.

[acrookedpath]

"Lan Zhan," he manages, thickly.

And then that is all for a long, long while, as he buries himself against him and cries.

[lightamidchaos]

He cradles Wei Ying against him, murmuring soft sounds of comfort into his hair, and holds him while he cries. There is nothing else to do, he thinks.

[acrookedpath]

Eventually -- when the sunrise has strengthened to gold, and there is no warmth left in the pot of tea -- Wei Wuxian's sobs trail into a hiccuping silence.

He does not let go. Only breathes, raggedly, against the damp patch his tears have left on Lan Zhan's clothing.




"I am so glad you're here," he whispers at last, exhausted.

[lightamidchaos]

"I will always be here for you." He strokes one hand gently through Wei Ying's hair.

[acrookedpath]

Sniffling hard, he tips his head enough to look up at Lan Zhan.

"I know," he mumbles. "I know I will not be alone."

[lightamidchaos]

"You will not," he promises, soft and sure.

[acrookedpath]

With a long, watery sigh, he loosens his grip on Lan Zhan, but stays tucked close to him.

"Ah, I hope I will not cry so hard the next time she leaves," he says. He scrubs the heel of his palm over his eyes. "I know she is not out of reach. But..."

[lightamidchaos]

“But it is hard,” he says, softly. “When you have lost her, before.”

[acrookedpath]

"Yes."

He lays a hand on Lan Zhan's arm: a silent, unconscious comfort offered.

[lightamidchaos]

His embrace tightens, just lightly. He allows himself to breathe in the scent of Wei Ying’s hair, to feel the warmth and weight of his body in his arms.

“We will find a way. To allow her to stay,” he murmurs, after a moment.

[acrookedpath]

He nods, stroking his thumb back and forth over Lan Zhan's arm gently, absently.

"It was so strange this time," he murmurs. "I heard her voice, and smelled her perfume, without any attempt to contact her. And once I lit incense and drew the sigil of the Seventh House in blood -- "

A tiny, shaky smile.

"She was here."